Creativity And Writing Quotes - Page 2

• It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.

  William Faulkner

  Moving, Writing, Character

  William Faulkner, Joseph L. Fant, Robert Paul Ashley (1964). “Faulkner at West Point”, p.101, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.

  Ray Bradbury

  Thinking Of You, Writing, Creativity

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• Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.354, Courier Corporation

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• How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Beautiful, Book

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.8, Penguin

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• Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

  John Steinbeck

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Couple

  John Steinbeck, Thomas Fensch (1988). “Conversations with John Steinbeck”, p.124, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.

  Leo Rosten

  Writing, Story Writers, Helping

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• My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.

  Anton Chekhov

  Lying, Writing, Stories

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  Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Writing, Night, Journey

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• Writers are always selling somebody out.

  Joan Didion

  Writing, Journalism, Selling

  Slouching towards Bethlehem (1968) p. xvi

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• Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.

  Truman Capote

  Children, Book, Writing

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• To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

  Truman Capote

  Music, Writing, Creativity

  Truman Capote, M. Thomas Inge (1987). “Truman Capote: Conversations”, p.88, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Writing, Reading Literature

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

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• I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.

  Pearl S. Buck

  Life, Beautiful, Work

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• Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things.

  Ray Bradbury

  Thinking Of You, Creativity, Self

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• The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.

  Russell Baker

  Real, Work, Writing

  Russell Baker (2011). “Growing Up”, p.157, RosettaBooks

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• Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none

  Jules Renard

  Success, Writing, People

  Jules Renard, Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Roget (2008). “The Journal of Jules Renard”, p.286, Tin House Books

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• You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.

  Neil Gaiman

  Writing, Ideas, Differences

  "Where do you get your ideas?" by Neil Gaiman, www.neilgaiman.com. 1997.

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• To draw you must close your eyes and sing.

  Pablo Picasso

  Art, Eye, Drawing

  Wilhelm Boeck, Jaime Sabartés, Pablo Picasso (1961). “Picasso”, New York : H.N. Abrams

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• The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' sense.

  Pablo Picasso

  Life, Motivational, Beautiful

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• The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.

  Linus Pauling

  Motivational, Inspiring, Success

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• Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Crafts, Suits

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 2, l. [19]

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• Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

  A. A. Milne

  Success, Writing, Fame

  A. A. Milne “Not That It Matters”, Lulu.com

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• The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Ursula K. Le Guin (1997). “Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places”, p.198, Grove Press

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• There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

  Robert Graves

  Money, Writing, Poetry

  Robert Graves, Frank L. Kersnowski (1989). “Conversations with Robert Graves”, p.71, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Reading, Book, Writing

  "The Figure a Poem Makes". Book by Ernest Hemingway, 1939.

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